Epic Gaming TV: will it be another stream content producer to hit the dust?

Stream producers and livestream production companies come and go in Singapore. Within a short span of just three years, I’ve seen the attempted rise and unavoidable fall of many groups – who have tried anything from weekly news packages to full blown tournaments and streams.

So when I first caught wind of Epic Gaming TV (EGTV), the crew behind Hearthstone Alley’s successful offline Hearthstone tournament, I was skeptical, to say the least. “What’s going to keep you from screwing up like the rest?” I had to ask EGTV’s 23 year old Jayf Soh (pictured above, centre).

Soh is a caster by trade. When I met him, he had dyed blonde hair and dressed in a suit for the tournament, where he doubled up as producer and caster for the Hearthstone stream. He is young, and impressive, public-speaking trained, and knows what he wants.

“People fail because they have no resources, and no casters,” he told me. Soh has recently completed his National Service, the mandatory two year conscription for all Singaporean males, and is no longer a soldier. He has, however, always been an entrepreneur, and with four startups under his belt already, he saw a way to turn his involvement as a Heroes of Newerth caster into something bigger and better.

Soh started out shoutcasting for Garena. That was where he met Lawrence ‘Larc’ Silva, who is also in on this gig with him. They were casting Heroes of Newerth daily when he realized that their fans followed them, and not the game, and EGTV was born.

Back end of the Hearthstone Alley tournament’s production.

“The problem with [stream production] companies is that they don’t focus on casters,” Soh continued. But at EGTV, the company is the caster. Soh is sole proprietor of the soon to be registered business, and counts his “passion, technical knowledge,” and the fact that he is “on the ground” to be factors that will give him an edge in this unforgiving market. However as a young adult fresh out of National Service, he did admit the company’s budget was going to be a problem.

As it is, EGTV is funded by Soh’s savings, back from when his other startups were still operational. The GE3 Hearthstone tournament cost him just S$200 (about $160) in production costs, though that’s sans the cost of the casters (who were paid) and the crew (five to six individuals per day, including Soh and the two casters). Taking it further will cost more, especially since Soh is eyeing three genres for the future: eSports coverage, episodic informative documentaries, and gaming equipment reviews by the professionals.

The road to success with an eSports production company is a rocky one for sure. I’ve seen students – people with the most free time on their hands – fail. I’ve seen a full blown eSports team – with a paid event organizer and biz dev manager – fail. I’ve seen so many plans never even get off the ground. But Soh believes that his company can do it. He likens this hope to “trying to make a dream come true,” and believes that it is possible, given the lack of proper eSports centric coverage in Southeast Asia. Now the only thing left to do is watch.

Good luck, guys!

For the curious, Epic Gaming TV can be found on Facebook and on Twitch.

UPDATE 2-1-2014: The article has been updated to remove an off color joke 🙁 Please don’t black bag us.